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Joined: 5/5/2011
Posts: 37
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As you all know, every story, romance or not has conflict. Something in the way of the character getting to their goals.
In romance what are your difficulties in being able to write the bad stuff that happens to them?
What bad stuff happens to your characters? And how much is too much for you?
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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I recall one of my editors commenting in one round of edits "Do you not *like* women?" I realized then that (at least while writing) I don't see women as fragile flowers. When I'm writing an adventure, romance or not, the women in the thick of the action are just as likely to get banged up as the men.
Thus far, in published works, I've had the FMC beat with a tire iron, nearly hit by artillery fire, decapitated, sent catatonic by meeting her dead mother, and blown to smithereens by a block of c4 the size of a loaf of bread. In stuff that's completed but still waiting to be published, they've been shot, stabbed, had organs ripped out, had limbs ripped off (that happened twice) run through with a boar spear, ripped in half, and tortured and raped to death by zombies.
Whoa. Lest you get the same impression as my editor, the (pubbed) *male* leads have been shot point blank with a shotgun, paralyzed (then ripped in half), had a kneecap ripped off by an expansion grating, and tortured by a demon lord. The non-pubbed ones have been raped, shot, had one ton weights dropped on them, and blinded.
As for romance / non romance, in terms of wordcount what I've got published is around 85% romance.
I just noticed the M / F lists are a little uneven. The reason why is pretty simple: the female leads outnumber the male leads by two to one. Ten female leads and five male leads. I guess it's just unhealthy to be the main character in one of my books.
As for what's 'too much', the one thing I hesitated on was the one graphically violent rape scene. The trouble was that the scene was critical both to plot and character development, and making it 'nicer' made the character seem shallower. All the other assorted nastiness wasn't really difficult to write at all, although in the case of the decapitation it took a while for me to realize that was what the story called for.
In terms of more mundane 'awful' stuff, like infidelity and poverty, I find those easier to write emotionally, but harder to write in terms of making them believable and readable. Why *would* the guy take the woman back after she sleeps around. How much fighting over money can a relationship take before it starts to fragment? How much jealousy is healthy, and how much becomes a problem?
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Joined: 5/5/2011
Posts: 37
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Looks like both of your stories have the FMC banged up in many types of ways. But it's true that the characters need some sort of depth to them and without a bit of bad the good just isnt as prominent.
Sometimes I find myself being too easy on my characters, kind of like watching a cartoon where all sorts of bad stuff happens to them but they come back from it like nothing happened but a couple of stray floating stars. That's when I have to re-read and re-write making it more realistic but seems like my first round of writing the bad stuff I end up protecting my characters until I go in for revisions.
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Joined: 3/7/2011
Posts: 15
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I am dealing with this question right now. One of the first scenes I have written for my newest WiP is where the MFC reveals to the MMC her secret, which only her cousin knows. As a child, her parents separated. MFC loved her father very much, but he was the one forced out of the home and not allowed to see his child. He dies in a car wreck, when MFC is 3-4 years old, leaving her with her mother, who becomes a drugged up, drunken alcoholic who forgets that she has a child. The little tiny girl has to take care of herself. She has to feed herself, clean herself, comfort herself. It's this lack of attention that makes her a shy, angry little girl who won't allow anyone to touch her, physically or mentally. Her archenemy is her cousin's best friend, the MMC, the only one to draw any sort of reaction from her.
This project is in its VERY early stages, so this scene definitely needs a clean up, but the MFC HAS to have this stuff happen to her for this story to even BE. BUT DAMN, it is SO hard to write this stuff and figure out how far to go, especially when the bad stuff happens to a child(to clarify, there is NO sexual abuse. THAT would be too much).
So....thanks for posting that question and allowing me to blather on enough to work through part of my plot...
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Joined: 5/5/2011
Posts: 37
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Samantha - Can't imagine how to even begin writing bad stuff for a child.
I am currently struggling with how much bad to good ratio to have in my story... I don't want it to be so dark that people can slush through it for the meat of the story but it has to be dramatic enough to have the cause and reaction effect.
I understand your woes.
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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Of course it's always difficult to write the bad stuff, especially as we want our characters to succeed. But we know it can't be that easy for them.
Since my work is a novel-in-progress, I'm still not entirely sure how many Bad Things will happen to my heroine and hero. I do open with a funeral, the death of my heroine's mother. She then has to deal with her uncle, whom she has had little contact with throughout her life.
On the romance side, I am framing the story around a love triangle, with my heroine torn between him and the other male lead. The OML has her uncle's blessing and backing, which in the period I set my novel in, goes a long way. So she and the hero have to figure out how to get around that obstacle. But I'm sure there will be more for my heroine to endure eventually. I just haven't gotten there yet.
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